"Wait A Minute......Take ANOTHER Look at that Grape Juice Stain in the Carpet...."

Years ago, when I lived in Nashville, there was a very popular bumper sticker used, primarily, by members of the local Church Of Christ.

“I Found It!”

Enthusiastic embracing of the Savior aside, I always thought the sentiment was, at best, smug and, at worst, short sighted.

Because in the best case scenario, the slogan could, I thought, be easily interpreted as a theologically veiled version of “neener, neener, we’re saved and you’re not”.
And in the worst case, it announces that the soul displaying the slogan feels like the “search” has come to an end.

Which might not be, I’ve thought now and then, the smart play.

Because I think I could do a pretty good job of making the case that it is the journey, and not the arrival, that gives this life the meaning it’s meant to have.

And that God, like any good parent, wants us to keep seeking and learning and asking questions.

Like the old saying.
You go as far as you can see…and when you get there...

You’ll see farther.

All of this theological theorizing was stirred up today when I got hold of this news story from AP:


ORLANDO, Fla. -- An unexplained image in a hospital prayer garden window moved some people to tears and drew groups of people to a hallway before vanishing, according to witnesses.
A crowd inside the Florida Hospital Medical Complex in Orlando snapped photos of the image apparently showing the profile of Jesus Christ crying.
A viewer said the image caused "a commotion" in the hallway near the prayer garden.
The hospital is calling it an unexplained image.
An official said as long as the image makes people feel good, that is all that matters,
Witnesses said after a few hours, the image vanished.

Admittedly, sightings of this nature are nothing new. From images in shrouds to divinely arranged tomato seeds, people have been “seeing” Jesus almost as often as we see Britney on Entertainment Tonight.
And in a world growing ever more chaotic and, dare I offer, Satanic, there is certainly some potential comfort to be found in anything that might be honestly considered an appearance of the son of God.

Not to mention that if it really is Jesus showing his face, the guy has one pretty cool sense of humor.

I mean, come on, you gotta give total props to a deity who teases the Second Coming by showing up as a silhouette on a piece of burned breakfast bread..

Trying to tell us that the non believers are all “toast”, perhaps?

Wickedly funny, if you ask me.

The moral of the story, if there is one, is that we’re all entitled to our beliefs.

And if somebody wants to see Jesus in a piece of black toast or in an oddly shaped potato or reflected in the window of a prayer garden in Orlando, then more power to them.

Because an open mind and an open heart require us to, at least, consider the possibility that we are, in fact, being shown a sign by the carpenter from Nazareth.

Then again, this latest pic also looks an awful lot like the “All Things Must Pass” period George Harrison.

And wouldn’t THAT stir up rumors of an impending Second Coming?

Oh, not Jesus.

Beatles reunion.

If I see John’s profile floating in my Cheerios tomorrow morning, I’m gonna think we’re on to something here.